Lower Lufeng Series

The Lower Lufeng Series (or Lower Lufeng Formation) is a Lower Jurassic sedimentary rock formation found in Yunnan, China. It has two units: the lower Dull Purplish Beds are of Hettangian age, and Dark Red Beds are of Sinemurian age.^[1] It is known for its fossils of early dinosaurs. The Dull Purplish Beds have yielded the possible therizinosaur Eshanosaurus, the possible theropod Lukousaurus, and the "prosauropods" "Gyposaurus" sinensis, Lufengosaurus, Jingshanosaurus, and Yunnanosaurus. Dinosaurs discovered in the Dark Red Beds include the theropod Sinosaurus triassicus, the "prosauropods" "Gyposaurus", Lufengosaurus, and Yunnanosaurus, indeterminate remains of sauropods, and the early armored dinosaurs Bienosaurus and Tatisaurus.^[2]

Paleofauna

Crurotarsans

Crurotarsans reported from the Lower Lufeng Series
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes
Dianchungosaurus[3]	D. lufengensis[3]	Yunnan[3]	Dark Red Beds[3]		Formerly considered an ornithopod dinosaur.

Ornithischians

Indeterminate ornithopod remains Yunnan. Dark Red Beds.^[2]

Ornithischians reported from the Lower Lufeng Series
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes
Bienosaurus[3]	B. lufengensis[3]	Yunnan[3]	Dark Red Beds[3]	A right "[d]entary with teeth,"[4] with additional cranial fragments such as a partial frontal. These specimens are catalogued as IVPP V 9612. The dentary preserves 11 teeth or roots with two additional empty alveoli.
Tatisaurus[3]	T. oehleri[3]	Yunnan[3]	Dark Red Beds[3]	"Isolated dentary."[4]

Sauropodomorphs

Color key Taxon Reclassified taxon Taxon falsely reported as present Dubious taxon or junior synonym Ichnotaxon Ootaxon Morphotaxon		Notes Uncertain or tentative taxa are in small text; crossed out taxa are discredited.

Sauropodomorphs reported from the Lower Lufeng Series
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Chuxiongosaurus[5]	C. lufengensis[5]	Yunnan[5]		"Skull[5]		"Gyposaurus" sinensis Jingshanosaurus Lufengosaurus Yunnanosaurus
Gyposaurus[6]	G. sinensis[6]	Yunnan[6]	Dark Red Beds[3] Dull Purplish Beds[7]	"[Two] skeletons, [one] with partial skull, [two] partial skeletons, [three] skull fragments, adult."[8]
Fulengia[3]	F. youngi[3]	Yunnan[3]	Dark Red Beds[3]	"Skull."[9]
Jingshanosaurus[7]	J. xinwaensis[7]	Yunnan[7]	Dull Purplish Beds[7]	"Complete skeleton with skull, adult."[8]
Kunmingosaurus[3]	K. wusdingensis[3]	Yunnan[3]	Dark Red Beds[3]
Lufengosaurus[6]	L. huenei[6]	Yunnan[6]	Dark Red Beds[3] Dull Purplish[7]		"(including Gyposaurus sinensis, L. magnus)"[2]
	L. magnus[6]	Yunnan[6]	Dark Red Beds[3] Dull Purplish[7]
Tawasaurus[3]	T. minor[3]	Yunnan[3]	Dark Red Beds[3]
Yunnanosaurus[6]	Y. huangi[6]	Yunnan[6]	Dark Red Beds[3] Dull Purplish[7]	"More than [twenty] partial to complete skeletons, [two] skulls, juvenile to adult."[9]
	Y. robustus[6]	Yunnan[6]	Dark Red Beds[3] Dull Purplish[7]

Theropods

Theropods reported from the Lower Lufeng Formation
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Eshanosaurus[7]	E. deguchiianus[7]	Yunnan[7]	Dull Purplish Beds[7]	"Dentary."[10]	Possible therizinosaur	Sinosaurus triassicus
Lukousaurus[6]	L. yini[6]	Yunnan[6]	Dark Red Beds[3] Dull Purplish Beds[7]	holotype skull, tooth[11] Three bone fragments[12]	Possible crocodylomorph[13]
Sinosaurus[6]	S. triassicus[6]	Yunnan[6]	Dark Red Beds[3] Dull Purplish Beds[7]	maxillary fragments, teeth, a lower jaw fragment incomplete skull and other post-cranial fragments	Dilophosaurus sinensis specimen now included with Sinosaurus

Tritylodonts

Tritylodonts reported from the Lower Lufeng Series
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes
Yunnanodon[14][15]	Y. brevirostre[14]	Yunnan[14]	Dark Red Beds

Mammaliforms

Mammaliaforms reported from the Lower Lufeng Series
Genus	Species	Location	Stratigraphic position	Material	Notes	Images
Hadrocodium[16]	H. wui[16]	Yunnan[16]	Dark Red Beds	Skull	Oldest and one of smallest mammaliaforms known. Indicates a correlation between the separation of the middle ear bones from the mandible and the expanded brain vault in early mammals.[17]

See also

• List of dinosaur-bearing rock formations

Footnotes

1. Luo, Z., and X.-C. Wu. 1994. The small tetrapods of the Lower Lufeng Formation, Yunnan, China; pp. 251–270 in N. C. Fraser and H.-D.Sues (eds.), In the Shadow of the Dinosaurs. Cambridge University Press, New York
2. Weishampel, et al. 2004.
3. "48.3 Yunnan, People's Republic of China; 2. Dark Red Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 534.
4. "Table 15.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 336.
5. Lü Junchang, Yoshitsugu Kobayashi, Li Tianguang and Zhong Shimin (2010). "A New Basal Sauropod Dinosaur from the Lufeng Basin, Yunnan Province, Southwestern China". Acta Geologica Sinica (English Edition) 84 (6): 1336–1342. doi:10.1111/j.1755-6724.2010.00332.x.
6. "48.3 Yunnan, People's Republic of China; 1. Dull Purplish Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series and 2. Dark Red Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series" in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 534.
7. "48.3 Yunnan, People's Republic of China; 1. Dull Purplish Beds of the Lower Lufeng Series," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 534.
8. "Table 12.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 234.
9. "Table 12.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 236.
10. "Table 7.1," in Weishampel, et al. (2004). Page 152.
11. C.C. Young. 1948. Further notes on Gyposaurus sinensis Young. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China 28(1-2):91-103
12. M. N. Bien. 1940. Discovery of Triassic saurischian and primitive mammalian remains at Lufeng, Yunnan. Bulletin of the Geological Society of China 20(3/4):225-234
13. R. B. Irmis. 2004. First report of Megapnosaurus (Theropoda: Coelophysoidea) from China. PaleoBios 24(3):11-18
14. Cui (1976), Yunnania, a new tritylodont genus from Lufeng, Yunnan. Vertebrata PalAsiatica 25, p.1-7.
15. Cui (1986), Yunnanodon, a replacement name for Yunnania Cui, 1976. Gu Jizhui Dongwu yu Gu Renlei (Vertebr. PalAsiatica 24), p.9.
16. Luo, Zhe-Xi; Crompton, Alfred W.; Sun, Ai-Lin (2001). "A New Mammaliaform from the Early Jurassic and Evolution of Mammalian Characteristics (Supplementary Information (Hadrocodium wui IVPP8275))" (PDF). Science 292 (5521): 1535–1540. Bibcode:2001Sci...292.1535L. doi:10.1126/science.1058476. PMID 11375489. Retrieved April 2013.
17. Luo, Zhe-Xi; Crompton, Alfred W.; Sun, Ai-Lin (2001). "A New Mammaliaform from the Early Jurassic and Evolution of Mammalian Characteristics" (PDF). Science 292 (5521): 1535–1540. Bibcode:2001Sci...292.1535L. doi:10.1126/science.1058476. PMID 11375489.

References

• Barrett, P.M.; Xu X. (2005). "Reassessment of Dianchungosaurus lufengensis Yang, 1982, an enigmatic reptile from the Lower Lufeng Formation (Lower Jurassic) of Yunnan Province, People’s Republic of China". Journal of Paleontology 79: 981–986. doi:10.1666/0022-3360(2005)079[0981:ARODLY]2.0.CO;2.
• Weishampel, David B.; Dodson, Peter; and Osmólska, Halszka (eds.): The Dinosauria, 2nd, Berkeley: University of California Press. 861 pp. ISBN 0-520-24209-2.